649 Jour., Bom. Nat. Hist. Soc, Vol. XXXII, Ne. 4 [May 31, 192ft. 



and high sugar-content. Chevalier states that it is the most useful of all the 

 plants growing in a wild state in the neighbourhood of Timbuctu. Every part 

 of it is utilized. It yields excellent fodder, material for thatching and caulking, 

 is burned to produce a salt used in the manufacture of soap and indigo, the 

 grains are eaten and the canes are gathered for extracting sugar or preparing 

 vinaigre or a beverage resembling cider. Sir John Kirk also describes it as one 

 of the richest of fodder grasses. Although typically a perennial with long 

 rhizomes creeping in the mud of swamps, lakes and rivers, it seems on tempor- 

 arily flooded land to flower frequently the first year and then to behave as art 

 annual.* 



{To be continued) ,, 



[28] 



